Parents resort to fraud in the scramble for places at Birmingham's best schools
"People who abuse the system leave others in the lurch. It simply is not fair. We have to show that we are willing to enforce the rules and that we will penalise anybody that is caught flouting the school admissions system.
“The real challenge is to raise standards across the board.”
Lawyers have said that parents are free to breach the code with impunity because the sanctions are not tough enough.
Yvonne Spencer, a partner in the education department at London law firm Veale Wasbrough, said last year that there was no way for councils to penalise parents who cheat and that the code of practice was not robust enough.
This week she said: “The Government has issued an updated code of practice this year, which has gone some way towards addressing the issue. Authorities can now withdraw an offer even when the child has started.
“But it still does not legislate for when a family keeps a family home, but rents another home in the catchment area and they all decamp. Very eager parents will still consider that it is worth it.”
Last summer a London council dropped a test prosecution against a mother accused of lying about her address to secure a place for her son at a primary school.
Harrow council had taken the action over an allegation that the mother had applied for a place for her five-year-old son using her mother’s address.
Harrow was prosecuting under the Fraud Act 2006, but has now been told it is no longer clear whether the legislation covers this type of case.
Nobody in the UK has ever been criminally prosecuted for providing false information on a school place application.
